Privacy policy

We welcome you to our website and appreciate your interest in our company. We take the protection of your personal data very seriously. We process your data in accordance with the applicable legal provisions for the protection of personal data, in particular the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) and the country-specific implementation laws applicable to us. With the help of this privacy policy we inform you comprehensively about the processing of your personal data by Alexander Wiegand SE & Co. KG and your rights.

Personal data is the information that makes it possible to identify a natural person. This includes in particular name, date of birth, address, telephone number, e-mail address but also your IP address. Anonymous data exists if no personal reference can be established to the user.

The same applies if you have questions regarding data processing in our company. You have a right of appeal to a data protection supervisory authority. If you already are a WIKA customer, supplier or employee or former employee, you are also welcome to contact your known contact person. This may be the case, for example, if you wish to notify us of changes regarding your contact details.

Rights to object Please note the following when it comes to rights of objection:

If we process your personal data for direct advertising purposes, you have the right to object to this data processing at any time without giving reasons. The same applies to profiling in so far as it is connected with direct advertising.

If you object to the processing of data for direct advertising purposes, we will no longer process your personal data for these purposes. The objection is free of charge and can be made form-free, if possible to: werbung@wika.de.

In case we process your data to safeguard legitimate interests, you can object to such processing at any time for reasons arising from your particular situation; The same applies to profiling based on these provisions.

We will then no longer process your personal data, unless we can prove compelling reasons worth being protected for the processing that outweigh your interests, rights and freedoms or the processing serves to assert, exercise or defend legal claims.

Purposes and legal bases of data processingWhen processing your personal data, the regulations of the EU-GDPR, the BDSG (new) (Federal Data Protection Act) and all other valid data protection regulations are kept. The legal basis for data processing results in particular from Art. 6 EU-GDPR.

We use your data for business initiation, to fulfil contractual and legal obligations, to execute the contractual relationship, to offer products and services as well as to strengthen the customer relationship, which may also include analyses for marketing purposes and direct advertising.

Your consent is also a permission regulation for data protection. Here we inform you about the purposes of data processing and your right of revocation. If the consent also refers to the processing of special categories of personal data, we will expressly point this out to you in the consent, Art. 88 Para. 1 EU-GDPR in conjunction with Section 26 (3) BDSG (new).

Processing of special categories of personal data in the sense of Art. 9 Paragraph 1 EU-GDPR only takes place if this is required by legal regulations and there is no reason to assume that your legitimate interest in the exclusion of processing predominates, Art. 88 Paragraph 1 EU-GDPR in conjunction with Section 26 (3) BDSG (new).

Disclosure to third parties We will only pass on your data to third parties within the framework of legal regulations or with appropriate consent. Otherwise, no data is forwarded to third parties, unless we are obliged to do so by mandatory legal provisions (transfer to external bodies such as supervisory authorities or law enforcement authorities).

Recipients of data / categories of recipientsithin our company, we ensure that only those persons receive your data who need it to fulfil their contractual and legal obligations.

Data is generally collected, processed and used by us, in particular, if we guarantee it. In certain cases, however, your data is also collected, processed and used by other companies of the WIKA Group (affiliate companies) or by service providers having a business relationship with us. In the last-mentioned cases, however, we will see to it that the relevant legal data protection requirements and the obligations resulting from this privacy notice will be complied with. Any further access to your information by third parties is not intended by us. In particular, we will not sell your data or use it in any similar way. We will comply with our duty of notification as required by law or authorities; in these cases, we will forward the relevant information to the public authorities.

In many cases, service providers support our specialist departments in performing their tasks. The requisite data protection agreements have been concluded with all service providers. This includes in particular the conclusion of contracts for order processing, as well as the listing of all relevant service providers.

Third-country transfer / Intention to transfer data to a third country Data is generally not transferred to third countries (outside the European Union or the European Economic Area). Any external data storage devices we may use are hosted within the European Union. Should a data transfer take place in third countries in individual cases, this will be indicated in each case. All data protection requirements are fulfilled, and an EU standard contract is concluded with the business partner in these individual cases.

Duration of storage of the dataWe store your data as long as it is needed for the respective processing purpose. Please note that numerous retention periods require that data must be stored further on. This applies in particular to commercial or tax storage obligations (e.g. German Commercial Code, Fiscal Code, etc.). If there are no further storage obligations, the data will be deleted as a matter of routine once the purpose has been fulfilled.

Furthermore, we may retain data if you have given us permission to do so or if legal disputes arise and we use evidence within the statutory limitation periods of up to thirty years; The regular limitation period is three years.

Secure transfer of your dataTo protect the information stored in our company against accidental or deliberate manipulations, loss, destruction or access by unauthorised parties, we have implemented the corresponding technical and organisational safety measures. The security level is constantly being checked in cooperation with security experts and adapted to new security standards.

The data exchange from and to our website is always encrypted. We offer HTTPS as a transmission protocol for our website, using the current encryption protocols in each case. The encryption techniques used at the moment can be viewed via the lock symbol of the browser address line. It is also possible to use alternative communication channels (e.g. by post).

Obligation to provide data Various personal data is necessary for the establishment, execution and termination of the obligation and the fulfilment of the associated statutory and contractual obligations. The same applies to the use of our website and the various functions it provides.

We have compiled the details for you in the course of this privacy notice. In certain cases, data also has to be collected and made available due to statutory provisions. Please note that it is not possible to process your request or to perform the underlying obligation without providing this data.

Categories, sources and origin of dataThe respective context determines which data we process: This depends on whether you place an order online or enter an enquiry in our contact form, whether you send us an application or submit a complaint.

Please note that we may also make information available separately at a suitable location for special processing situations, e.g. when uploading application documents or for a contact enquiry (mandatory or optional details).

Information about the websites you visit within our internet presence, including date and time

Cookies (Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f EU-GDPR / Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. a EU-GDPR with consent) Our websites utilise cookies in several places. They serve to make our service more user-friendly, effective and safe. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your computer and saved by your browser (locally on your hard drive).

Cookies allow us to analyse how users use our website. Thus we are able to tailor the content of the site to the requirements of the user. Cookies also make it possible to measure the effectiveness of a particular advert and show us where best to place it depending, for example, on the topics the user is interested in.

Most of the cookies we use are so-called “session cookies”. These are automatically deleted after your visit. Permanent cookies are deleted from your computer automatically when their period of validity has expired or if your delete them yourself before they expire.

We use cookies to make our service more user-friendly, effective and safe. Furthermore, we use cookies, as they allow us to analyse how users use our websites. Thus we are able to tailor the contents to the requirements of the user. Cookies also make it possible to measure the effectiveness of a particular advert and show us where best to place it depending, for example, on the topics the user is interested in.

Cookies are stored on the user’s computer and transmitted to our site. This is why you as a user also have full control over the use of cookies. By changing the settings in your internet browser, you can deactivate or limit the transfer of cookies. In addition, already placed cookies can be deleted my means of an internet browser or other software programs at any time. This is possible in all common internet browsers. Please note: If you deactivate the setting of cookies, not all functions of our website may be fully usable.

User profiles / web tracking procedures We use various analysis tools to improve your user experience. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f EU-GDPR. The individual tools are described in more detail below.

Google Analytics This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google Inc. (“Google”). (“Google”). Google Analytics uses “cookies”, text files that are stored on your computer to help the website analyse how users use the website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is usually transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there.

Should IP anonymisation on this website be activated, your IP address will be truncated within the area of member states of the European Union or other parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the whole IP address be first transferred to a Google server in the USA and truncated there.

Google will use this information on behalf of the operator of this website for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing them with other services relating to website activity and internet usage. The IP address that your browser conveys within the scope of Google Analytics will not be associated with any other data held by Google.

You may refuse the storage of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser; however, please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. You can also prevent the collection of the data generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) by Google, and the processing of these data by Google, by downloading and installing the available browser plug-in from the following link. The current link is: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en.

Should your web browser (e.g. when accessing our website from your smartphone) not support the above link to Google’s browser add-on, you can also prevent Google Analytics from collecting by clicking on the following link. Then an opt-out cookie will be set, which will prevent the future collection of your data on visiting this website: Deactivate Google Analytics.

Webtrends This website uses Webtrends, a web analysis service of Webtrends Inc., 555 SW Oak Street, Suite 300, Portland OR 97204, USA). Webtrends uses “cookies”, text files that are stored on your computer to help the website analyse how users use the website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is usually transmitted to a Webtrends server in the USA and stored there.

Webtrends will use this information on behalf of the operator of this website for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing them with other services relating to website activity and internet usage. The IP address that your browser conveys within the scope of Webtrends will not be associated with any other data.

You may refuse the storage of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser; however, please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website.

LiveChat LiveChat is a tool which allows you to chat with our employees on the homepage. When using this tool, the following personal data is collected and stored: name and e-mail address of the user, IP address, date and time of the respective chat entries as well as the chat history. Further data will not be saved. The data is required to enable us to contact you and to send you appropriate replies. The data will be stored after your chat with us in order to be able to access the data at a later point in time for clarifying facts, if necessary.

For reasons of technical safety (in particular to prevent attack attempts on our web server) this data is stored in accordance with Art. 6 Paragraph 1 lit. F EU-GDPR. The respective log files are deleted after 32 days at the latest.

We collect and process the following data for a contact enquiry:

Name, first name

Company, department

Address (street, house number, postal code, city, country)

Phone, fax

E-mail

Your message

Value-added tax identification number

Customer ID

The scope of the requested information may differ in the individual forms. A distinction is made between mandatory and optional details.

We collect and process the following data for online applications:

Name, first name

Address

Contact details

Curriculum vitae, photo, employer’s references, if necessary further attachments which you make available to us.

The data will be stored by us for a period of 6 months. If you give us permission to do so, the data will be stored for longer periods accordingly, and may be exchanged between the companies of the WIKA Group.

We collect and process the following data for newsletters:

Name, first name

E-mail address

Title

Country

Language

If you have subscribed to the WIKA newsletter, you may easily unsubscribe any time. To do so, go to this subscribe/unsubscribe page and enter the saved e-mail address under “Unsubscribe from newsletter” at the bottom of the page. After clicking on the “Unsubscribe” button, you will be asked for which languages you want to unsubscribe. After this the respective data is deleted. Furthermore, you have the possibility to unsubscribe directly in the newsletters via the “Unsubscribe” button in the signature.

The newsletters sent out are analysed by us with regard to user behaviour. In doing so we collect the following analysis data:

Number of recipients

Successful deliveries

Undeliverable e-mails (hard/soft bounces)

Openings

Opening rate

Click-to-open rate (CTOR)

Total amount of clicks

Click rate (CTR)

Cancellations

Without reaction

The analysis of user data is only carried out by means of anonymised IP address, thus the data is not personal.

Automated case-by-case decisions We do not use any purely automated processing processes to bring about a decision.

Links to other websites Our website also includes clearly marked links to the websites of other companies. Provided there are links to websites of other owners, the contents of such websites is not under our control. Therefore, we shall not be responsible or liable for any of these contents. The providers or owners of the linked-to websites are solely liable for the contents.

The linked-to pages were checked for any possible infringements or noticeable violations of the law at the moment of establishing the link. There was not any noticeable illegal contents at the moment of linking. A continuous control of the contents of the linked-to websites, however, is not reasonable without any specific evidence of a violation of the law. As soon as such violations of the law become evident, we will remove such links promptly.

Social media plug-ins The following social plug-ins are used on our website: Facebook button, Google+ button, Twitter button, Xing button, LinkedIn button.

These social media plug-ins can collect personal data of the website user. This is why we use the so-called 2-click solution. When you access the website, the buttons are deactivated. You can recognise this by the grey colour of the button. In this state no personal data is collected by these buttons. This only happens when you actively click on one of the buttons. In this case you will be forwarded to the respective service. Details of the respective social plug-ins can be found below:

Use of Facebook social plug-insOur website uses social plug-ins (“plug-ins”) of the social network facebook.com, which is operated by Facebook Inc., 1601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA (“Facebook”). The plug-ins are marked with a Facebook logo or the addition “Facebook social plug-in”. When you visit a website of our internet presence containing such a plug-in, you browser may establish a direct connection with the Facebook servers in case of an activated button. The content of the plug-in is then transmitted directly from Facebook to your browser and integrated to the website.

Two clicks for more data protection Only by clicking on the button does it become active and your browser establishes the described connection with the Facebook servers. The first click on the button thus means that you give your consent to the transfer of data to Facebook. After activating the plug-in, Facebook receives the information that you have accessed the corresponding page of our website. If you are logged in to Facebook, Facebook can assign your visit to your Facebook account, even if you do not activate the Facebook button a second time. If you interact with the plug-ins, for example by clicking the “Like” button another time or leaving a comment, the respective information is directly transmitted from your browser to Facebook and stored there.

Even if you do not have a Facebook account, Facebook may collect information about you, e.g. your IP address. The purpose and scope of data collection and the further processing and use of the data by Facebook as well as your relevant rights and setting options for the protection of your privacy can be found in the Facebook privacy notice: If you do not want Facebook to collect data about you via our website, you must log out of Facebook before visiting our website. In addition, you can use add-ons to install appropriate blockers for your browser.

Privacy policy for the use of Twitter On our homepage you will find functions of the provider Twitter. They are provided by Twitter, Inc. 1355 Market Street Suite 900. San Francisco, CA 94103. By using Twitter and the “Re-Tweet” function, the websites visited by you are linked with your Twitter account and made public to other users. Data is also transmitted to Twitter.

Two clicks for more data protection Only by clicking on the button does it become active and your browser establishes a direct connection with the Twitter servers. One click on the button thus means that you give your consent to the transfer of data to Twitter.

After activating the plug-in, LinkedIn receives the information that you have accessed the corresponding page of our website. If you are logged in to Twitter, Twitter can assign your visit to your Twitter account, even if you do not activate the Twitter button a second time. If you interact with the plug-ins, for example by tweeting, the respective information is directly transmitted from your browser to Twitter and stored there.

We would like to point out that, as the provider of the sites, we are not aware of the content of the data transmitted or how it is used by Twitter. For more information, please see Twitter’s privacy policy.

Privacy policy for Google +1 Our website uses the button of the social network Google Plus, which is operated by Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States (“Google”). When you visit a website of our internet presence containing such a button, you browser may establish a direct connection with the Google servers in case of an active button. The content of the “+1” button is then transmitted directly from Google to your browser and integrated to the website. In this case, we do not have any influence on the extent of data Google collects with this button, but we assume that your IP address will also be recorded.

Two clicks for more data protection Only by clicking on the button does it become active and your browser establishes the connection described above with the Google servers. The first click on this button thus means that you give your consent to the transfer of data to Google.

After activating the plug-in, Google receives the information that you have accessed the corresponding page of our website. If you are logged in to Google, Google can assign your visit to your Google account, even if you do not activate the Google button a second time. If you interact with the plug-ins, for example by clicking the “Google +1” button another time or leaving a comment, the respective information is directly transmitted from your browser to Google and stored there.

The purpose and scope of data collection and the further processing and use of the data by Google as well as your relevant rights and setting options for the protection of your privacy can be found in the Google privacy notice about the “+1” button.

If you are a Google Plus member and you do not want Google to collect data about you via our website and link it to your membership data stored at Google, you must log out of Google Plus before visiting our website.

Privacy policy for Xing share button Our website uses the button of the social network XING, which is operated by Xing SE based at Dammtorstraße 30, 20354 Hamburg Germany (“Xing”). We would like to inform you about the processing of personal data via the function of the Xing share button.

This website uses the “XING share button”. When accessing this website, your browser is used to establish a short-term connection to the servers of XING SE (“XING”), with which the “XING share button” functions (in particular the calculation/display of the counter value). XING does not store any personal data about you when you access this website. XING in particular does not store any IP addresses. There is also no evaluation of your user behaviour via the use of cookies in connection with the “XING share button”. The latest data protection information on the “XING share button” and additional information can be called up on this website: https://www.xing.com/app/share?op=data_protection

Two clicks for more data protection Only by clicking on the button does it become active and your browser establishes the connection described above with the XING servers. The first click on this button thus means that you give your consent to the transfer of data to XING.

After activating the plug-in, XING receives the information that you have accessed the corresponding page of our website. If you are logged in to XING, XING can assign your visit to your XING account, even if you do not activate the XING button a second time. If you interact with the plug-ins, for example by clicking the “XING share” button another time or leaving a comment, the respective information is directly transmitted from your browser to XING and stored there.

The purpose and scope of data collection and the further processing and use of the data by XING as well as your relevant rights and setting options for the protection of your privacy can be found in the XING privacy notice about the “XING share button”.

If you are a XING member and you do not want XING to collect data about you via our website and link it to your membership data stored at XING, you must log out of XING before visiting our website.

Privacy policy for LinkedIn buttons Our website uses the button of the social network LinkedIn or LinkedIn Corporation, 2029 Stierlin Court, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (hereinafter referred to as “LinkedIn”). The LinkedIn plug-ins can be recognised by the respective logo or the “Recommend button”.

If a user clicks on the respective button, a connection is established between your respective internet browser and the LinkedIn server. LinkedIn is thus informed that our website was visited with your IP address. If you click on the “Recommend button” of LinkedIn and are logged in to your LinkedIn account at the same time, you have the possibility to link content from our website on your LinkedIn profile page. In doing so, you enable LinkedIn to assign your visit on our website to you or your user account. You must know that we have no knowledge of the content of the transmitted data and their use by LinkedIn.

Two clicks for more data protection Only by clicking on the button does it become active and your browser establishes the connection described above with the LinkedIn servers. The first click on this button thus means that you give your consent to the transfer of data to LinkedIn.

After activating the plug-in, LinkedIn receives the information that you have accessed the corresponding page of our website. If you are logged in to LinkedIn, LinkedIn can assign your visit to your LinkedIn account, even if you do not activate the LinkedIn button a second time. If you interact with the plug-ins, for example by clicking the “LinkedIn” button another time or leaving a comment, the respective information is directly transmitted from your browser to LinkedIn and stored there.

If you are a LinkedIn member and you do not want LinkedIn to collect data about you via our website and link it to your membership data stored at LinkedIn, you must log out of LinkedIn before visiting our website.

Online shop (Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. b EU-GDPR) We only process the data provided by you within the scope of the order form for the execution or processing of the contractual relationship, unless you agree to further use.

The principle of data economy and data avoidance is observed by you only having to give us the data that we absolutely need to execute the contract or to fulfil our contractual obligations (i.e. your title, first name, surname, company, department, VAT identification number, address, country, telephone number, e-mail) as well as the payment data required for the selected payment method or to which we are legally obliged to collect.

Moreover, your IP address is processed for technical reasons and for legal protection. Without this data, we unfortunately have to refuse the conclusion of the contract, as we will then not be able to execute it or may have to terminate an existing contract. Of course you are free to enter more data on your own accord if you wish.

Customer account (Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. a, b EU-GDPR) In our online shop, we offer users the opportunity to create a customer account by entering their personal data. The advantage in particular is that you can see the order history and that your entered data is stored for the order form. When you place an order again, you do not have to enter your data again.

The creation of a customer account is therefore either necessary or possible to fulfil a contract with you or to carry our pre-contractual measures. In doing so, the principles of data economy and data avoidance are observed, as only the data required for registration is collected (see above at online shop). Data is subdivided into compulsory data and optional data. Optional data is marked as “optional”.

For orders in our online shop we also need information on your billing address for delivery. If the delivery address deviates from the billing address, the above information for the delivery address must also be provided. By registering on our website, the IP address of the user, the date and the time of the registration are also stored (technical background data). By activating the button “Create” you consent to the processing of your data.

Please note: The password used by you is stored in encrypted form. Employees of our company cannot read this password. This is why they cannot give you any information if you have forgotten your password.

In this case please use the function “Forgotten your password?”. Using this function you will receive an automated link from us. You can then change your password by using this link. No employee is entitled to ask you for your password by telephone or in writing. This is why you should never give your password if you receive such requests.

After the creation of the customer account has been completed, your data is stored with us for the use of the protected customer area. As soon as you log in to our online shop with your e-mail address as user name and your password, this data is provided in our online shop for actions performed by you. Performed orders can be traced in the order history. You can enter changes to the billing or delivery address here.

Registered persons are free to make changes / corrections to the billing or delivery address on their own. You can also delete your customer account. The FAQ section of the online shop describes in detail how to delete your account.

Payment/disclosure of data within the scope of the online shop A transfer of your personal data to third parties will only happen insofar as this is necessary for the fulfilment of our contractual obligations or for the execution of the contract. When paying in our online shop, in connection with this, we will pass on the payment data you have provided to a payment service provider appointed by us (the transmission is TLS/SSL-encrypted), who executes the transaction (available payment methods are: invoice, credit card, PayPal). Your data will only be used by the payment service provider for this purpose. Following your order, we will transfer your e-mail address and order data to the Trusted Shops GmbH, Subbelrather Str. 15c, 50823 Cologne, Germany (www.trustedshops.eu) for a rating of our online shop. The latter will send you an e-mail with the possibility to place a rating of our online shop. If you do not wish to do so, you can object at any time by sending an e-mail to service@trustedshops.com or by clicking the corresponding link in the e-mail sent to you by TrustedShops. Any further access to your information by third parties is not intended by us. In particular, we will not sell your data or use it in any similar way. We will comply with our duty of notification as required by law or authorities; in these cases, we will forward the relevant information to the public authorities. Payment is transmitted to PayOne / Computop. As with TrustedShops, they will only process the payment data for payment purposes.

Customer Portal The Customer Portal is a service available for our customers. These are especially our corporate customers. A licence agreement is concluded with them for the use of the Customer Portal. The corporate customers decide on their own which of their employees may use the portal. You will find a configurator in the Customer Portal. We evaluate the user behaviour with regard to the configurator. The user behaviour is evaluated at customer level and at the level of the respective employee of the customer who uses the portal. The Customer Portal neither uses social media plug-ins nor the LiveChat tool. The IP address is also not made anonymous. The stored password is encrypted with a hash algorithm.

Registration in the Customer Portal A user account is not created until a licence agreement has been concluded. Users can already be named here and created by WIKA. In addition, an administrator of the customer can also add further user accounts.

Microsoft Azure In addition, we would like to inform you, for reasons of transparency, that we operate our Customer Portal and our online shop via a cloud service offered by Microsoft Azure. The data collected from you resides on the servers of Microsoft Azure within the European Union, so that here also the maintenance of a proper level of data protection is ensured. Of course, in order to protect your data and your personal rights, we have concluded the legally required agreements with Microsoft Azure.

Last update May 29, 2018

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